


Love Bind Your Heart

by nuricurry



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 17:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13322847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuricurry/pseuds/nuricurry
Summary: A moment of reprieve, a moment to sit down and think. Karolina wants for little else than what's in front of her. (Spoilers for episode 10)





	Love Bind Your Heart

“Ugh! Come on!”  
  
The sound of Chase struggling with the knobs and dials of the church’s van echoes through the quiet clearing, breaking through the silence that had fallen over the others, as they sit gathered around the hastily put together campfire.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Gert asks, looking over her shoulder, briefly disturbing Molly who is resting her head against her. The younger girl however quickly positions herself once again without complaint, as Chase’s voice comes through the open sliding door of the van.  
  
“This damn radio doesn’t work. I don’t think we get any reception up here,” he grumbles, clearly disappointed, and then there’s the sound of more clicks and fiddling, Chase obviously not quite ready to give up hope of finding a radio station just yet.  
  
“Is that really your priority right now?” Gert says in disbelief, then, “Chase! Don’t you think we have bigger things to worry about then finding some ‘hot new tunes’?”  
  
It’s Nico who speaks up next, before Chase has to defend himself. “Honestly? I could go for something to listen to that isn’t the five of us breathing. It’s a little…” she makes a face, wrinkling her nose in distaste, and her point is easily made. “Though, please, if it’s that shitty country station that plays Bob Dylan all the time-- hard pass.”  
  
Karolina laughs, a little louder than she means to, but as Nico’s eyes shift over to her, she doesn’t worry too much about it. She just smiles, warm and a little giddy, because Nico is tilting her head slightly to one side, in that way she does when she is trying to hide her own smile, during those times she wants to look cool and aloof, even if it’s just for show. “What? You don’t like Bob Dylan?” Karolina asks in faux surprise, teasing Nico, “I can’t believe it. You look like you listen to his stuff all the time.” At that, Nico makes another face, this time aimed directly at Karolina, who just laughs again.  
  
“Is this what it’s going to be like with you two all the time now?” Molly asks, her tone a mix between curious and bored, “Jeez. I used to think Dale and Stacey got weird.  
  
That quiets everyone, though, perhaps for a variety of reasons. Nico and Karolina, because it’s the first time someone beyond the two of them really acknowledged that shift between them, that had only been hovering in the air for the past few hours, and for Gert because it was mention of her parents, in a way that wasn’t asking about how to expose them to the public for crimes against man and nature, and instead talking about them like normal people. Like embarrassing parents who called each other pet names and made flirty jokes, much to the chagrin of their children. Chase, it seemed he went quiet for Gert’s sake, because he couldn’t say anything that broke that sudden tension, even though Karolina guessed he wish he could.  
  
As if on cue, the tuning and persistence from the van paid off, as the sudden silence was broken again, this time by the sound of the radio, as it finally finds enough reception to filter in a station.  
  
“Chase, turn that off,” Gert begins to say, sounding a little annoyed, but mostly sad, but before Chase can do as she asks, Molly speaks up again.  
  
“Wait! I think I know this song. I like it.”  
  
Chase stops, and the music continues to play, filtering out from the open doors of the van, and into the clearing. It’s one they all know, or, at the very least, recognize bits and pieces of it, having heard it in commercials or on TV occasionally during the course of their lives.  
  
 _“...just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby…”  
  
_ There’s a bump against Karolina’s knee, and she looks to see that Nico has moved closer, scooting along the fallen log they were sitting on, in order to touch her knee to Karolina’s. That connection draws her eyes up, to meet Nico’s, and for a moment, they just look at one another.  
  
She never thought that she would enjoy looking at Nico as much as she does.  
  
They grew up together, they went through preschool and kindergarten and all those messy and awkward stages together, and she didn’t really consider what Nico looked like. Well, obviously she knew _what_ she looked like, she knew she was a pretty girl before she even understood that what she was looking for in someone happened to be girls, but she never really thought hard about Nico’s face. But, since they started all talking again, since they were reunited and bonded together by trials of fire, she took the time to really look at her, and take in again everything she thought she knew about her.  
  
Nico’s eyes were always the most expressive parts of her face. Though she looked like her mom in a lot of ways, there was a distinctive difference between the two of them, and it was that Nico’s heart could be read in her eyes. With her mother, it was like looking into two black holes, cold and empty, giving nothing away. Nico’s nose though, was just like her mom’s. Small and round, not as long and sharp as the one her father and sister had.  
  
Naturally, lately, Karolina had been looking a lot at Nico’s lips. Sometimes she felt kind of bad about it; lots of times Nico would be talking to her, but Karolina wasn’t paying attention, she was too busy staring at the slight upturn of the right corner, or the shape her lips formed when she said certain words, things that were both rude and maybe a little creepy, but done without realizing it until it was too late, Nico had already been speaking for five minutes and Karolina barely caught the tail end of what she said. She had thought about kissing her for a long time before she finally got up the courage to do it, and now that she had (twice! there were two kisses!) she worried that the staring and distractions might keep being an issue.  
  
“Karolina,” Nico said, and by the tone of her voice, it was clear that was not the first time she had called it. Whoops, speak of the devil there. “Hey, are you okay?”  
  
“Yeah,” she says, mostly by reflex, though, after a moment of thought, and self-assessment, she nods, and says it again. “Yeah, I’m okay. Why?”  
  
Nico hesitates for a moment, seeming as if she’s not sure if she wants to explain herself. However, she finally replies, “You’ve just seemed a little… I don’t know, out of it? Since we got you from the church. Are you sure you’re okay? That fight with Jonah--”  
  
“I’m just a little tired is all,” she interrupts her, both to prevent any mention of Jonah from ruining this moment she doesn’t want spoiled by him, and also to reassure Nico. “I’ll be fine. It’s no problem. Really, I’m okay,” she reiterates, when it seems like Nico isn’t entirely convinced.  
  
“Are you really sure…?”  
  
She doesn’t want Nico to hold onto that thought. She reaches over, and takes one of her hands from where it was resting on her knees, and interlaces it with hers. With a squeeze, she levelly meets her gaze, and gives her a soft smile, and firm nod. “Yeah,” she promises, and after a moment, Nico squeezes back.  
  
“Okay,” it comes out more like a sigh than Karolina wants to hear from her, but Nico relents in her worrying. Their hands still together, fingers still entwined, she once more scoots over closer to Karolina, until they’re shoulder to shoulder, and hip to hip, their sides pressed together, as they sit on their makeshift bench.  
  
As the warmth of Nico’s body seeps from her clothes and mingles with hers, Karolina feels herself leaning further into it, until she tips her head to the side slightly, just enough to drop it onto the top of Nico’s. The difference of their heights makes the angle work, and at that, Karolina can’t help but smile again, whimsically thinking to herself that surely they were meant to be that way, with how natural it all seems.  
  
“God! Chase, change the station!” Gert suddenly calls out to the van, in exaggerated irritation, “This song sucks! Can’t you find something that isn’t grossly misogynist or patriarchal?” she asks, voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
“Not on AM radio stations,” Chase retorts back, which earns a soft snort from Nico, and a nuzzle into her hair from Karolina.


End file.
